Mormon Battalion Visitors Center

Last Saturday Tyler and I went to the grand re-opening of the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center in Old Town. We were both blown away by how nice it was, they really went above and beyond. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the inside, they have a cool guided tour that you go on that is really well done. They really made it kid friendly for all the field trips they host. Below are a few pictures from the visitors center and the surrounding historic homes and of course Old Town. Every year the LDS Church puts on a fun festival to honor the battalion and their contributions to San Diego. It was a lot of fun!

The kids can pan for gold.

Or they can help build bricks.

Here's Tyler pulling a "Dwight Schrute" by checking out the handywork.

One of the historic homes.

Ty HAD to have a homemade biscuit!

He got tired of waiting so I had to finish up the cookin', it was SO good!

Parent's Attempt to Escape Bad Weather

A couple weeks ago my parents decided they had had enough of the Utah snow and thought it would be a perfect time to visit *sunny* San Diego. I was excited to see them and came up with a fun list of things to do while they were here. Of course, the one week they decide to come is the one week where it rained the entire time. It did put a damper (pun intended) on the trip, but we still managed to have a good time. One of the coolest things we did was visit the Reagan Library. My dad was SO excited to see Air Force One he practically ran through the museum to get to the plane.

Air Force One

Piece of the Berlin Wall

Redlands Temple (a little detour on the way home)

Bonus Picture: This is NOT staged. Chalie LOVES to curl up with a blanket with a pillow over him. He's a strange little guy.

Happy Anniversary

Tyler and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary this past Saturday. I can't believe its already been six years, the time really has flown by. Tyler really is the best husband. He is so sweet, fun, smart, and everything wonderful. I'm so happy that I married my best friend and look forward to spending the rest of my life with him.

Our first week in Utah

I can't believe we've already been in Utah a week! Time is flying by a little too quickly. I've had a lot of fun so far, its been really nice spending time with our families. The below pictures are in random order (I'm too tired/lazy to put them in their proper place) from our past week here. For some reason I didn't get very many pictures on Christmas day. Ty likes to tease me that I "made out like a bandit" each year, and this year was no different. Ty got me an amazing mini laptop (in my favorite color...pink), FIVE books, and of course new clothes. He's the best.

Bridger enjoying his new stuff (he also made out like a bandit)

Ty (and his family) had this plaque done of his Grandpa's service medals to give to his Grandma. It was really amazing!
All the girls (Mackenzie, Corine, Ivy, Kathy, Brittney, Eliza and Brooke)

Ty and Kath

Jared, Ethan, Janie, Bridger, Barry and Brooke

My mom Connie, Brooklynn and Trevor

Nicole and Brooklynn

Bridger

Ivy and Eliza love their uncle Ty

All my neices and nephew

Brittney, Bridger and Kath

Charlie was SO good on the 11 hour drive up!

Charlie Company Outpost

I recently graduated the last group of my recruits, there are 440 new basically-trained Marines. These pics are from the outpost (the party for the DI's and their families after every graduation). It was the last training cycle that I'll be doing and I'll be reporting back to the legal office at the start of the new year.

Rick, Glen, Ryan and me

"We are Charlie Company, we drill better than Bravo Company..."
I got a going-away souvenir, they gave me a cool plaque for my time in Co. C.
I was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievment Medal for my 18 months training recruits as a series commander and executive officer in Delta and Charlie Companies. This is the CO, Capt Flores, giving the medal.

Marines from Charlie Company

The "J" Drill Instructors after graduation.

The Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal

The Crucible

Tyler recently finished his last crucible with his recruits at Camp Pendleton. The crucible is the last big event for recruit training that consists of a 54-hour field exercise, with about thirty obstacles and about 40-50 miles hiking, all on 2.5 MRE's and a total of eight hours sleep. Below are a few pictures of the crucible and Charlie company staff and drill instructors. (They are not allowed to take photos of recruits.)

Live fire range

Bivouac site (recruit tents)
Obstacle on the Crucible

DIs: Sgt McNulty, GySgt Caldas, Sgt Bishop, SSgt McBride

GySgt Molnar, Capt Hart, SSgt Reyes

Charlie Company Staff

Sgt Cortez, Capt Hart, SSgt Mott (watching the body sparring)

1stLt Ankrah, Capt Hart, Capt Flores (trying to stay warm on "the hill")

Funny

I saw this on my friend's blog (Shannon) and thought I'd share! Also, Tyler and I will be going home to Utah for a couple weeks and I plan on doing lots of fun posts while we're there. I just have to remember to not only bring my camera but to use as well! Happy Holidays!

Top Ten TV Couples

I'm going to try and make an effort to do more posts. Tyler is upset that I spend so much time on my bookreview blog and no time on our personal blog. I guess we really haven't been doing anything exciting lately so I haven't had a reason to post. Anyway, I participate in different blogger meme's and thought this would be a fun one to do on our blog. In order to participate all you have to do is compile a list of your top ten favorite TV couples and pass it on. It was hard to narrow it down and I ended up spliting it up by sitcoms and dramas. Below are my fun choices:

CHEERS: Sam and Diane

FRAISER: Niles and Daphne SEINFELD: Jerry and Elaine FRIENDS: Ross and RachelTHE OFFICE: Jim and Pam
DAWSONS CREEK: Pacey and Joey
FELICITY: Ben & Felicity
LOST: Jack and Kate
SMALLVILLE: Clark and Lois

CHUCK: Chuck and Sarah

Who are your favorites?